ArticleJournal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle2021
Evaluating quality of life in frailty: applicability and clinimetric properties of the SarQoL
Article in Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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8 citing papers in PubMed, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- The relationship of cytomegalovirus with physical functioning and health-related quality of life in older adults.European geriatric medicine · 2025Article
- Influence of a multicomponent exercise intervention on fear of falling and gait parameters in community-dwelling older adults: a prospective study.BMC geriatrics · 2025Article
- Review
- Assessing the Smallest Detectable Change of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale Score in an Adult Population in Japan.Psychology research and behavior management · 2023Article
- Assessment of Sarcopenia Related Quality of Life Using SarQoL® Questionnaire in Patients With Liver Cirrhosis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Article
- Frailty but not sarcopenia nor malnutrition increases the risk of developing COVID-19 in older community-dwelling adults.Aging clinical and experimental research · 2022Article
- Sarcopenia Diagnosis: Reliability of the Ultrasound Assessment of the Tibialis Anterior Muscle as an Alternative Evaluation Tool.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Evaluating quality of life in frailty: applicability and clinimetric properties of the SarQoLJournal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe SarQoL® questionnaire was specifically designed to measure quality of life (QoL) in sarcopenia. Frailty and sarcopenia have areas of overlap, notably weak muscle strength and slow gait speed, which may mean that the SarQoL could provide a measure of QoL in frailty. This study aimed to evaluate the clinimetric properties of the SarQoL questionnaire in physical frailty using the Fried criteria.
methodsAnalyses were carried out on data from the Sarcopenia and Physical impairment with advancing Age study. Frailty was assessed with the Fried criteria and QoL with the SarQoL, the Short-Form 36-Item, and the EuroQoL 5-Dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaires. We evaluated discriminative power (with the Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance test), internal consistency (with Cronbach's alpha), construct validity (through hypotheses testing), test-retest reliability (with the intraclass correlation coefficient), measurement error (calculating standard error of measurement and smallest detectable change), and responsiveness (through hypotheses testing and standardized response mean).
resultsIn total, 382 participants were included for the validation and 117 for the responsiveness evaluation. They had a median age of 73 (69-79) years, took 5 (3-8) drugs, and had 4 (3-5) co-morbidities. There were more women (n = 223; 58.4%) than men and, in total, 172 (45%) robust, 167 (44%) pre-frail, and 43 (11%) frail participants. Discriminative power was confirmed when significantly lower (P < 0.001) overall SarQoL scores, and thus also worse QoL, were observed between robust [77.1 (64.35-85.90)], pre-frail [62.54 (53.33-69.57)], and frail [49.99 (40.45-56.06)] participants. Six of the SarQoL domains performed likewise, with significantly lower scores according to frailty status with Domain 7 (fears) being the exception. Internal consistency was good (α = 0.866). Convergent (using Short-Form 36-Item and EQ-5D) and divergent construct validity (using EQ-5D) was confirmed. Test-retest reliability was excellent [intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.918 (0.834-0.961)], with a standard error of measurement of 3.88 and a smallest detectable change of 10.76 points. We found moderate responsiveness when five of the nine hypotheses were confirmed, coupled with a large effect size for the overall SarQoL score (corrected standardized response mean of -1.44).
conclusionsThe SarQoL questionnaire has adequate clinimetric properties for use with frail patients in clinical practice and trials and could provide data that are more appropriate and detailed than the generic questionnaires currently used.
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